Mini Vacation

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been absent a few days. I had tech trouble this weekend, then jury duty! So I'm back. And in honor of jury duty, I am posting this photo. The Guadalupe County Court House is art deco, which is both refreshing and unexpected in the town square setting, where other buildings are not of that period. But it all seems to work and I do like the courthouse here more than when I served jury duty in SA. Our courtroom has very tall windows on both sides of the room so I gazed outside at swaying tree tops as I waited for my name to be called.

Change of scenery

Two of my earlier posts were of very traditional homes in Seguin. Here's one I like b/c it's so different! Check out the color! I wouldn't want to paint my own home in such bright colors but I do love looking at this one. Even their garage to the right and a shed in the back yard are painted in the same bright colors. Fun house.

Ghostly flowers

Along the banks of the Guadalupe again. I was out there enjoying the sounds of the water and the breeze. I liked these wildflowers and tried several times to snap a shot but the wind was playing with me. However, when I uploaded the pictures, I kind of liked the way the flowers sway in the picture.

We have a lot of big old trees around us. I really liked this one next to the Guadalupe River. I wish I knew how old it is.

Bags o' Water

We went to one of the best burger places I've ever been to -- Kirby's Korner. I love this place. I was sitting there and noticed these little bags of water hanging and had no idea what they were or why I've never noticed them in years past. My husband said that some people believe hanging bags of water keeps flies away from the area. Maybe it works b/c I did not see flies over here.

Peachy

Texas is not known to be "peach country," which is a real shame since I LOVE peaches (grew up on sweet peaches in North Carolina). Peaches need a certain amount of cold, cold weather and we just don't get enough here. Despite this my husband gave me a peach tree 3 or 4 years ago for Vietnamese New Year (Tet) and we planted it. We had ONE (!) wonderfully sweet peach after the first year and nothing last year. This year is looking up because this guy is one of several we've spotted!

Time of Day

I have always liked seeing this clock every time I drive down Austin Street.

Hay!

Right before my exit home, I saw this man making the bales of hay. I have always wondered how they do this. I wish I could have gotten closer. I watched for a while as he ran the machine around his field, collecting the hay on the ground. I guess the maching on the back of the tracker bundles it all and I finally saw the thing spit out a round bale of hay. Kind of cool.

St. Andrew's

This is St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, a block from the town square. Seguin has many beautiful little churches so I may feature more of them in the days to come. I love the bells and the front.

Texas Theatre

In the midst of renovation effort but I would like to explore it inside. This is an old, old theatre on Austin St., one of the main streets that runs through our square. There are more and more interesting, locally-owned shops popping up. Some in new buildings, many in existing old buildings. We have "Third Thursday" every month and merchants stay open later than usual, have music, entertainment and so on in order to encourage locals to stop by, meet folks, shop, have fun. I'll try and get a good snap soon.

Sun setting downtown

This is one of the renovated buildings on our town square. Mainly offices. When I drove by I noticed the solo balcony and the sun on it. I thought it looked pretty against the blue sky. I also liked the detail on top of building.

The Pecan Bottom

This is the Bottom I mentioned in the Big Pecan posting. It's hard to convey the true feel of this place. It used to be a pecan orchard but now belongs to the City and is a park. There is a pavilion you can rent for events, a walking trail (about 1 mile) and a driving trail as well. The Guadalupe runs along the right side of this picture. The trees are huge and quite old though I don't know exactly how old.

Quiz for the day

I know what these are simply b/c my husband explained them to me. I just wanted to see if any of you know about these pretty little things. I love the green one. They come in a variety of colors and there are conferences and shows for collectors of these.

Flood levels

When I posted the water plant photo, I was asked about the flood levels and how the river is impacted. Well, I've lived here almost 11 years and in Seguin, I have seen 3 devasting floods. It seems we are either in severe drought or we get too much rain and the ground just can't take it all in fast enough. Anyway, in the picture, my model is about 5'3" and then you can see the floods events. 1998 was the worse at almost 37' above river level. Offices were flooded, homes near the river were totally destroyed (in a nearby town a few houses actually floated down river), our golf course which runs along the Guadalupe suffered damage that took years from which to recover. Shelters had to be set up for displaced victims of the flood. It was very hard on the city.

Hearty Leaves

Another beautiful start to the day. However, it turned out to be a blazing hot hot day.

What a wonderful day

I took today off to celebrate my birthday (actually tomorrow but there's something fun about taking a day off from work). I couldn't have asked for a better start. Sleeping past 5:30am, perfect temperature of upper 50s (unheard of in South Texas in May), blue blue skies, my sweet kitty to escort me around the yard. This is from our flowering cactus. Forgot the name.

Center of Town

It's hard to convey the feeling our the twon square but this is one angle of it. Many events are held here: Christmas Parade, Hat Parade, concerts, marches end/start here, fairs, carnivals, trade shows, etc. Surrounding the square are older buildings and interesting trees. I'll share some of those in the future. I'll tell you more about the horseman on another day. Oh, and the fountain is lit at night and very popular.

The Big Pecan

Charlie Brown has the Great Pumpkin, we have the Big Pecan! Pecans are very popular around town. We have beautiful orchards all around us. There's a really nice place called the Pecan Bottom along the Guadalupe River (will try to get a good pic of that soon). The Big Pecan above is located prominently in front of our county court building. Locals and visitors often stop to take their pic with the BP. There's another big pecan outside the Pape's Pecan store but this is our official nut. ;) That store is really neat -- been around a long time and the owner has an incredible collection of nutcrackers and other nut-opening tools. I'll try to get a pic of that place one day. It's pretty cool. Even if you're not a nutcracker fan.

This is one of the views I have as I arrive home to Seguin (I work in San Antonio). We're about 40 miles east of SA and there is a lot of land out here in TX. This year it looks like corn is the big crop for a lot of farmers around here. And it's coming up nicely since we've had good rain twice the past two weeks. We're still behind on our rain average but hopefully the corn will bear a good crop for everyone this year.

And this house is two doors down from the Baxter-Fennell-Tips House in the last post. Quite a lot of work has been done on it and then they put it on the market. Sat empty for a while though I don't know how as it looks really nice. I like the carport in the back. The renovations on this looked great.

Historical Homes

Tried to post this one on Saturday but I had all sorts of trouble and was unsuccessful. Anyway, better late than never.

There are plenty of new homes being built in our little town of almost 24,000. My husband and I like to look at and explore the older homes ourselves. They seem to have so much more character. This is one of the projects started late last year. The property sits on a huge lot with big oaks and in addition to the main house, there are several really cool little bungalows. Those would make great rooms for visitors I imagine. If you want to see and read more on the house, see The Baxter-Fennell-Tips House. They have TONS of photos, past and some present renovation shots. Very interesting.

Our own home is about 100 years old and nowhere near the size of this project. We've done most of the work ourselves (mainly my husband but our son and I am the helpers) though we recently decided to let professionals redo our bedroom, the kitchen and some work outside on the house. I'll post before and after shots when we finish. It's really fun to find old things in the walls and under the house!

Old Water Plant

This is no longer being used but there is a campaign by some in the City to get a developer in so that they can build a foot bridge, restaurant and/or something touristy here. It sits on the Guadalupe River, which runs through Seguin and is quite beautiful. The water is almost always clearish green, unlike where I grew up in NC where we're known for our muddy rivers. Whatever happens, I just hope the natural state won't be disturbed or altered too much.

Seguin, not Sequin!

As people pass the exits for Seguin, TX, they often imagine that the "g" is a "q." I did the same thing 11 years ago as I was driving the moving truck by same said signs. Seguin is home to about 24,000 people and all their animals...lots of land around us (we're between San Antonio and Houston). This is my little animal, Smokey the cat. On this day, he found a friend. I don't know from where and I dared not ask.